Local Gun Control Laws, Term Paper Example

This paper explores the concept of Gun control in the United States.  In particular the stance that supports (pro lobby) gun control.  The paper is split up into the following main parts: (i) Introduction and Background to Gun Control in the USA  (2) The positive arguments in support of gun control (3) The argument in support of gun control and (4) How such a policy may be implemented in the United States.  The paper addresses the question –  What are the social issues in implementing stricter gun controls in the United States?

Introduction and Background

There is a right of  the American people that is protected by the Second Amendment.  This is the right to bear arms.  ‘The Constitution of most of our states, amounts that all power is inherited the people; that it is their right and duty to be on the tour times.’  [Thomas Jefferson, 1824].  Whilst this argument held good over 100 years ago, particularly in the lawless west and  the need for protection against Indians and outlaws, times have changed.  It is now questionable given the number of homicides and other shootings in the USA where there is  Credence for stricter gun controls.  The American Society is the most heavily armed society in the world, and it is considered that some 40% of households in the USA possess a firearm.  As a result, the instance of homicide in the USA is 10 times higher than any other developed country.  The first major breakthrough came in the 1980s, which was recognized that gun ownership represents a public health hazard. (Open Society (OSI))

There’s also the question of legal gun ownership is virtually every illegal weapon originated as a legal weapon.  It has been shown that 30 to 40% of all handguns used in criminal shootings are traced by the federal government has been sold as a new weapon by a licensed dealer some years earlier.

The National Rifle Association is the largest gun rights lobbying institution in the United States.  They have donated political contributions to both the Republican and Democratic parties, but they are largely supported by the Republican Party.  In the USA it was reported in 1997 that they were 18,289 murders of these 10,369 were committed with firearms.  In addition there were 7.9 million violent crimes  and of these  691,000 were committed with firearms.  It has been stated that Americans use firearms in order to defend themselves, on average 764,000 times per year. (Agresti)

The law requires that the law enforcement agencies permit all handgun owners.  It is required to have a clean criminal record and complete a firearms safety course.  On September 14, 1994, the assault weapon ban was passed in this for the use of semiautomatic assault weapons for civilian use.

Positive Arguments in support of gun control

Violent crime, particularly organized crime has started to use armor piercing bullets.  These have been referred to as “cop killers” as the prime purpose is to penetrate bullet proof vests worn by police officers.  The argument is for restricting high velocity guns that can fire armor piercing bullets. In October 1996 President Clinton met with the widow of a Police Officer and the President gave the following address- ” I still think we ought to ban those bullets that are built only for one purpose, to pierce the bullet-proof vests that our police officers wear. I don’t see why we need those things out there. Let me tell you, we just started this program two years ago, as I said, when I signed the Crime Bill in 1994. Today, I met with the first — the family of the first one of the police officers hired under our Crime Bill, killed in the line of duty. I met here in Louisiana, in Lake Charles I met with that officer’s widow and two beautiful, beautiful young sons. And I thought to myself, you know, if people like these folks here are going to put their lives on the line for us, the least we can do is tell them if they put on a bullet-proof vest, it will protect them from being killed. That’s the least we can do for them”  President Clinton.  (Baker).

We have witnessed a number of school killings and in particular the Columbine School massacre. On April 20, 1999 in the suburb Littleton, Colorado.  Two high school students went on a killing spree during the middle of the day.  Two boys were on to the teeth with  guns, knives and bombs.  They simply walked through the hallways of the school killing anyone they came into contact with.  This resulted in the deaths of 12 students.  One teacher, and ultimately the two murderers who committed suicide.

The two boys identified as Dylan Kiebold and Eric Harris appeared to have no motive for the killings.  Both boys came from reputable homes, were intelligent and did relatively well at school.  It was later discovered that Kiebold had suicidal tendencies to talk about committing a large massacre, this being some 12 months earlier.  Harris had a record of some petty crimes. It seems they jointly developed an anger and a mutual hatred of people.  The pair amassed a small arsenal that included 99 improvised explosive devices.  There were 2000 students attending Columbine high school in the fall of the IED’s have exploded the fatalities would have been in the hundreds.  This was a ‘ turning point in American society and the way we viewed security at schools’ .(Rosenberg, 1999)

In the decade that has passed since the Columbine high school massacre, safety has improved somewhat.  The total number of murder cases in schools has declined.  School security measures have been improved and the schools are more vigilant in identifying students with potential violent tendencies.  Experts in the police and federal government.  However say that there is room for improvement in the school administration needs to be more proactive in reporting crimes.. ” Katherine Newman, a Princeton University professor of sociology who has studied the causes of school shootings extensively, says schools must make it easy for students to report the threats they hear in the lunchroom and any troubling behavior they see in the hallways if administrators hope to identify potential shooters before it’s too late.”  (Calefati, 2009).  Since the Columbine High School incident there have been a further reported 28 incidents of these we have seen a number of fatalities.  Consider the following:

• Columbine 4/21/99
  • 2 student suspects
  • 13 dead / 23 wounded
  • Weapons / method
  • Charges filled
• Buell Elementary School 2/29/2000
  • 6 years old suspect
  • 6 years old victim
  • Weapons / method
  • Charges filled
• Santana High School 3/5/01
  • 1 student suspect
  • 2 dead / 13 wounded
  • Weapons / method
  • Charges filled
• Red Lake Massacre 5/21/05
  • 1 student suspect
  • 9 killed / 5 wounded
  • Weapons / method
  • Charges filled
• Amish School Shooting 10/02/2006
  • 1 Adult suspect
  • 5 killed / 5 wounded
  • Weapons / method
  • Charges filed

Although all crimes of this nature are to be condemned, it still needs to be kept into perspective with the larger picture i.e. those crime statistics that reflect the entire US teaching population.  The following statistics were collected in 2007/8 :  ” In the 2007–08 school year, an estimated 55.7 million students were enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 12 (Snyder, Dillow, and Hoffman 2009). Preliminary data show that among youth ages 5–18, there were 43 school-associated violent deaths from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008. In 2007, among students ages 12–18, there were about 1.5 million victims of nonfatal crimes at school, including 826,800 thefts and 684,100 violent crimes (simple assault and serious violent crime). During the 2007–08 school year, 85 percent of public schools recorded that at least one violent crime, theft, or other crime occurred at their school. ”  (National Centre for Education Statistics, 2009).

The rise of juvenile crime in the USA has seen an alarming amount of cases using guns in indiscriminate killings.  Often gang and drug related but equally impacting innocent bystanders. Juveniles mixing in gangs may result to victimization as more criminal related activities like, mugging, theft, robbery, intimidation etc.  This is often teenagers coming from backgrounds of poverty and becoming resentful of others that have money and a lifestyle that they can never attain. This equally covers vandalism and damage of property as a result of rage and jealousy. There are a number of behavioural conditions associated with juvenile delinquency i.e. anger, rage, hatred, jealousy and ignorance ( lack of education). This often leads to repeat offences and eventually more serious crimes including homicide.  Certain states like Texas treat juvenile crime in the same context in adults and the death penalty still exists for juvenile homicide cases.  (Snyder and Sickmund)

The recent spate of shootings in US Schools (Columbine Example) was the result of two boys who were relatively isolated, talked of carrying out a massacre, talked of a suicide pact and ultimately carried out their fantasy.

In 1987 Florida adopted a right to carry law, and between 1987 1996.  The changes, as illustrated in figure 3 to the left, showing considerable improvement occurred.  In 1987, 221,443 concealed licenses to carry firearms were issued during this period.  Florida recorded 18 crimes with licensed firearm holders.  Since 1998, not a single permit Holder shot a police officer.  There have been several reports of licensed holders protecting a police officer’s life

Implementing Gun Control Policies in the USA

The Obama administration has put forward a two-pronged attack in gun control in the USA.  The first relates to ending the dangerous cycle of crime being carried out by youth violence.  Both Obama and Biden are looking at programs like the cease-fire program adopted in Chicago, which adopted  a community-based approach that has been extremely successful.

They’re also looking at addressing the increasing violence in the cities and the need to empower, local law enforcement officers across the states,  and fight the  illegal firearms trade.  The Obama administration supports commonsense measures in support of the Second Amendment and the rights of licensed individual gun owners.  The emphasis will be on keeping guns away from juveniles, and known criminals.  They want to see a close on the use of gun shows and agree that the assault weapons ban should be made permanent. ” Gun violence prevention groups like the Freedom States Alliance have praised President Obama’s proposed measures, writing that he “gives Americans a renewed sense of optimism about our future, and that we, as a nation, can come together to solve big challenges, including the epidemic of gun violence that continues to devastate our country.” (Opposing Views).

The States maintain a list of Since 1968, federal law has made it a felony for various “prohibited persons” to possess a firearm, to purchase a firearm, to own a firearm, or to do anything else with a firearm. The law is backed by stringent felony prison terms. Likewise, it is illegal for a person (including a firearms dealer) to transfer a firearm to a prohibited person. (18 U.S.C. § 922(d).)  (Kopel).

Public opinion on gun control and ownership is somewhat fickle. When a major incident occurs like columbine the public immediately raise support for gun control ” In May 1999, shortly after the shootings at Columbine High School, more than twice as many Americans said it was more important to control gun ownership (65%) than to protect the rights of Americans to own guns (30%). Support for gun control slipped to the mid-50% range in 2000 and remained at about that level through 2008.”  (Pew Research Centre Publications).

Since that time public opinion has split and now it is somewhat equally divided between that of gun control and gun ownership. ” The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 10-14 among 1,500 adults, finds the public is evenly split over whether it is more important to protect the rights of gun owners (46%) or to control gun ownership (46%). That is largely unchanged from April 2009 (49% control gun ownership vs. 45% protect gun rights). But from 1993 to 2008, majorities had consistently said it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect the right to own guns.”  (Pew Research Centre Publications).

The table to the right in Fig 5 shows the difference in opinion between people in the community, region and political persuasion relative to whether the State should pass local laws in order to ban the use of handguns.

” Support for gun control among white women also has fallen sharply since 2008. Two years ago, 61% of white women said it was more important to control gun ownership while 33% said it was more important to protect the right to own guns. In April 2009, white women — by 54% to 39% — said it was more important to control gun ownership. In the new survey, they are evenly divided (46% control gun ownership, 45% protect gun rights).”  (Pew Research Centre Publications).

The latest position in 2010 still remains divided but there has been relatively little change in most groups during the past year . Between 2008 and 2009, support for the right to own guns increased substantially among men — particularly white men — high school graduates, independents and people living in the Midwest and South”  (Pew Research Centre Publications)

Works Cited

Agresti, James D. Gun Control Facts. 10 6 1999. 4 5 2010 <http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp>.

Baker, Peter. “”Clinton Cites Officer’s Car Death In Opposing ‘Cop-Killer Bullets’.” Washington Post 26. 10 1996.

Calefati, Jessica. School Safety, 10 Years After Columbine. 17 4 2009. 8 3 2010 <http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2009/04/17/school-safety-10-years-after-columbine.html>.

Kopel, David B. How Strict are U.S., Colorado, and Local Gun Control Laws? . 20 4 1999. 4 5 2010 <http://www.davekopel.com/2a/ip/howstrict.htm>.

National Centre for Education Statistics. National Centre for Education Statistics. 2009. 9 3 2010 <http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/crimeindicators2009/key.asp>.

Open Society (OSI). Gun Control in the United States. White Paper. New York: Open Society (OSI), 2000.

Opposing Views. “Obama Outlines Gun Control Policy.” Politics / Obama Presidency 22 1 2009.

Pew Research Centre Publications. “Gun Control Splits America.” Pew Research Centre Publications (2010).

Rosenberg, Jennifer. Columbine Massacre (Part 4). 3 5 1999. 8 3 2010 <http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/columbine_4.htm>.

Snyder, Howard N. and Melissa Sickmund. “Juvenile Offenders and Victims.” Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report (2006): 253.